Means for actuating folding doors



MEANS FOR AGTUAIING FOLDING DOORS Filed June 20, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 1LL gwwnfoz EDMUND G. MATHAUEE May 14, 1935.

E. G. MATHAUER MEANS FOR ACTUATING FOLDIiIG DOORS Filed June 20, 1935 3Sheets-Sheet 2 gwumlto'c EDMUND G. MATHAUEE aka z mu:

May 14, 1935- E. G. MATHAUER MEANS FOR ACTUATING FOLDING DOORS FiledJune 2 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet s EDMUND G. MATHAUEE Patented May 14, 1935ulvrrnn STATES MEANS FOR ACTUATING FOLDING DOORS Edmund G. Mathauer,

Philadelphia, Pa., as-

signor to American Car and Foundry Motors Company, New York, N. Y'., acorporation of Delaware Application June 20, 1933, Serial No. 676,648

2 Claims.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in means foractuating the folding doors of buses and. other vehicles, and comprisesdoors adapted when in normal closed position 5 to rest in alinementwith. the side walls of the vehicle, and when in open position, tooccupy a. position outwardly beyond. said normal line and being foldedone upon the other.

Another object of the invention is to provide simple, powerful and.economical means for actuating the doors to open and closed positionscomprising a pneumatically actuated engine positionedpreferably underthe floor of the: ve-

hicle and relatively at one side of the step well leading from thenormal floor of the vehicle to the ground.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a broken side elevational view'of avehicle, a passenger bus in the present instance, equipped with the in.-vention.

Figure 2 is a horizontal sectional view, the section being taken.relatively on the line 22 of Figure 1, looking in the directionindicated by the arrow.

Figure 3 is a sectional view, the section being taken on. the line 3-3of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is. a: sectional view, the section. being. taken relatively onthe line. 4--4 of Figure: 3'.

' Figure 5 a plan view taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 3, certain partsbeing shown. in section.

Figure 6 is. a fragmentary plan View, partly in. section, the sectionbeing taken. on lineG-G of Figure 1.

It has been conventional. practice in buses of In modern practice thedoors are opened and closed usually by pneumatically actuated engineswhich are connected in some manner with 50. the doors, to open and closethe same, These with the housing enclosing such door actuating mechanismand experience has shown that frequent claims for damages have been madebecause of accidental contact of passengers headgear or their heads withsuch housing.

'I'o obviate the disadvantages referred to, this invention providesmeans including pneumatically actuated engines connected directly withthe doors and so positioned as to be entirely out of sight of passengersand. in such position that accidental contact therewith is obviated.

To that end the system illustrated in the accompanying drawings isemployed, in which A, A B, 13 indicate compressed air conduits which areconnected. to opposite ends of the cylinders of pneumatically operatedengines I, which engines are equipped with pistons 2., piston rods 3,relief valves 4,. and links or extensions 5, which arepivotallyconnected at 6, directly to the piston rods 3, said linkshaving extensions 1, which are pivotally connected withv the brackets 8secured directly to the inner faces of. those leaves of the foldingdoors which are nearest in alinement with. the engines referred to.

Included in the system an engine M which may be the one used to propelthe vehicle, and may be. positioned as shown. or elsewhere. Driven bythe engine M is an air compressor C connected by conduit I16 to the.compr ssed. air cylinder ID, from which leads a conduit II to an aircontrol valve [2, which may be a conventional four-way valve of the:type illustrated in Patent 999,246 of August 1,. 1911,. or may be of anysuitable construction adapted. for the pur-' pose.

As is conventional with this type of. valves, an exhaust outlet I3 isprovided, and. from one sidev of the valve extends the conduit A whichsupplies: air to the engines of both the front and the rear doors, saidconduit comprising the branches A, A, from which lead the branches A A AA directly to the rear or inner ends of the engines I. The branchconduit B from the valve [2, leads through the branch lines B B to thefront or outer ends of said engines so that when the valve I 2 is thrownto open communication from the compressed air cylinder l, air may besent either to the inner or outer end of each of said engines I, and ifsent to the ihner end, the piston 2 will be driven outwardly, that is,in the direction of the doors, thereby, through the pis ton rod 3, linkand extension 1, forcin the doors outwardly to the position shown indotted lines in Figure 2.

When it is desired to close the doors, the control handle I4 is shiftedso as to cut of! the air supply from the conduit A, A and direct thecompressed air through the conduit .8, B. To facilitate operation of theengine, relief valves 4-4 of conventional design are provided at eachend of the engine cylinder so that when compressed air is not being sentfrom the compressed air valve it may exhaust backwardly through the,connected conduits, the valve I2 and the exhaust I3.

The drivers seat I5 is shown in a convenient position to readily enablethe driver to control the handle I4 without leaving his seat.

For convenience, the engines are housed below the normal or main floorline indicated in dotted lines at H in Figure l and shown in plan inFigure 2. If desired, the engine may be housed in a sheet metal casingI8, shown in elevation in Figure 3.

Preferably the step well opening is made wider for my invention thanwould be a normal step well so that the engines may occupy the positionsshown in Figure 2 without restricting unnecessarily the area of the stepwells.

Preferably also, the floor I1 is carried across above that portion ofthe step well in which the engines are positioned, as shown in Figure 3,and over the normal floor is secured an anti-slip tread 9 ofconventional design, well known in the art, which anti-slip tread alsoextends above the engines and their housings in the preferredconstruction.

As will be obvious from the showing in Figure 2, the conduits A, A, B, Band II and the compressed air cylinder I0 are concealed beneath thefloor I'I.

As the control valve I2 is within the vehicle and about on a level withthe steering wheel (not shown), it is obvious that a short length ofeach conduit I I, A and B from below the floor to the valve I2, isexposed within the vehicle though said conduits are below the floor forthe greater part of their length.

Figure 6 illustrates certain parts on a larger scale than in Figure 2.For example, the door post E, door D, pneumatic engine I, link 5,extension 1, and connection 8 with the door.

From the disclosure in this figure it will be seen that the brackets 8are sufilciently removed from the pintle 24 of the door' hinge 25 topermit easy operation of the door.

Looped about the pintle 24 the hinge straps 25 and 26 are secured, bymeans not shown, respectively to the door post E and to the nextadjacent door section. To position the piston and piston rod of theengine in alinement with the hinge member 8, the spacing block 26 isprovided as shown in Figure 6.

Features of merit in the device hereinbefore described when comparedwith devices for a similar apparatus now on the market, are found to beas follows: (a) Weight-the weight per vehicle of the apparatus describedin the present application is about one hundred pounds less than theweight of comparative equipment now on the market where the latter isplaced in a cabinet above the doors and applicants device is placed inthe step well. (b) The comparative cost of applicants device and otherdevices on the market is as follows: Applicant's device located in stepwell, less than one-half the cost of competing devices and will producea saving of nearly three times its cost when compared with similardevices in which a cabinet for the operating mechanism is provided abovethe doors to be operated including the cost of the cabinet.

The device of applicant is now in service and has demonstrated that itisboth eificient and durable as well as economical in production.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, the bestembodiment of the invention has been described, but it is to beunderstood that the drawings are only illustrative and that theinvention could be carried out by other means, for example, thearrangement of parts can be modified by placing the engine in a positionunder the main floor back of the step well, as for example in Figure 2,between the conduits A A as shown at the right hand side of that figure,in which case the conduits A and B could be shortened somewhat, but itwould be necessary to lengthen the connection from the piston to thedoor.

What I claim is:

1. In a vehicle provided with a doorway and a step well, hinged doorsnormally closing said doorway, a floor for the vehicle, parallelhousings at opposite sides of said step well, floor extensions coveringsaid housings, and door operating means enclosed in said housings andbeing operably connected to the hinged doors at points spaced fromthe-passageway whereby an unobstructed entrance is provided.

2. The substance of claim 1 characterized in that the door operatingmeans is in the form of power motors which have arms extending throughthe housing and directly connected to the doors at points adjacent theirhinges.

EDMUND G. MATHAUER.

